Splunk’s Erik Swan plunks down $17 million on Point Dume

Since we just discussed Angie Jolie’s not-so-secret Point Dume hideout yesterday, we thought why not? Darn if it isn’t a hot day. Let’s stay out there where the sea billows roll, where the girls are pretty and the Bentleys outnumber the Camrys 4 to 1. Out there beyond yonder Umbrian hills (the Santa Monica mountains by any other name). But before we depart, wet your whistle with a glass of something cool. There’s nothing like a fresh-squeezed lemonade sold illegally on the side of a public road. Is there?

Now then. As you all know, Malibu is Malibu. And what does a seaside neighborhood like Malibu do? Malibu gets very expensive. So because big money makes noise and we’re nosy Nancys, let’s discuss a big sale that recently went down out there.

Earlier this month, a house on Point Dume sold for the extremely A-list (and rather complicated) figure of $17,753,645. The spendy buyer’s identity is carefully shielded behind a blind trust, but it should be noted that the trustee of said trust happens to be a Palo Alto (CA) based attorney.

Well, kiddies, we can’t tell you how we know. But Yolanda just happens to know that the new owners are a very low-profile (but very rich, duh) Silicon Valley couple named Erik & Julie Swan.

Mr. Swan is the co-founder of a tech company called Splunk. You may never have heard of Splunk – and neither had Yolanda before we did a bit of research on our Mr. Swan – but it’s a publicly traded Silicon Valley tech firm with more than 1,700 employees. The company “produces software for searching, monitoring, and analyzing machine-generatedbig data, via a web-style interface,” according to our homegurl Wiki Pedia.

And it’s extremely successful. Splunk hauled in $668 million in revenue last month. Not the sexiest of industries, but clearly the company found a profitable and exploitable niche. For Yolanda’s part, she’s extremely grateful to know that Splunk exists because their name is endlessly fun to say out loud. Especially several times fast. Go on, try it! You know you want to.

Though only in his early 50s, Mr. Swan seems to have retired from day-to-day operations at his company. He serves only as an “advisor” there nowadays. Nevertheless, he is – according to Forbes – the company’s largest single shareholder. Or at least he was back in 2012. Back then, the company’s $35.02 share price gave Mr. Swan’s shares a value of $115.6 million.

Splunk’s stock price closed today at $57.59, which would make those same shares worth somewhere around $190 million, give or take a few hundred thousand Benjamins. Clearly, though Yolanda can’t ascertain Mr. Swan’s net worth with any certainty, he definitely has the dough to afford a $17 million vacation home in Malibu.

Now onto the house. But first, let’s get one thing out of the way here. Although the mini-compound is recently renovated and the lot is a generous 1.01-acre, the real selling point here is the 17 million dollar views. So below are pictures showing the true value of the property.

We know plenty of folks will disagree with your gurl, but we find all those palm trees to be a mite distracting from the ocean view. Yolanda would thin the herd just a tad. Otherwise it’s pure, unfiltered bliss.

The compound is far from huge, but there’s still plenty of space. The main house has four bedrooms and four bathrooms, then there’s a two-story guest house with another bed and full bath. And let’s not forget the detached three car garage with two separate maids quarters. That gives the estate a total of 7 bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms, though the listing does not specify total square footage.

In case you think $17 million is way too much money for a house this size, think again. The property next door — similar-sized lot but with a decrepit teardown structure — sold earlier this year for $17,100,000 to Malibu mega-realtor Chris Cortazzo, who happens to be the guy who repped both sides of the deal we are discussing today.

However, kiddies, this not the end of the story. You may want to sit down for this next part. Ready? You see, not only is this not the only residence Mr. Swan owns in Malibu, it’s not the only 8-figure house he owns on Point Dume.

It was only a year ago when Mr. & Mrs. Swan shocked the Splunk naysayers (Splunksayers?) by throwing down $13,340,646 for another house that’s basically just around the corner from their new property.

That’s a total of $31,094,291 in luxury Malibu real estate. Not too shabby. More like Splunky!

But if $31 million somehow doesn’t impart the fact that Mr. & Mrs. Swan are really, really rich, Yolanda has navigated the murky depths of property records and we can tell you that the couple also own yet another multi-million dollar residence – this one in the little-heralded city of Truckee, CA, on the Lake Tahoe shore.

Back in 2012, the Swans paid $5,375,000 for the house, which includes 6,352 square feet of living space, 5 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms, a media room, a gym, and a wet bar for passing the time on those icy winter days.

Let’s end on a warm note — back in Malibu. To be honest, though we’ve heard a couple rumors we can’t say with any certainty what Mr. & Mrs. Swan plan to do with their two pricey homes on Point Dume. Perhaps they’ll renovate the new one and eventually sell the one they bought from Ms. Crawford & Mr. Gerber. Maybe they’ll flip one. Or rent one. Or flip or rent both. What about a teardown? Say it ain’t so!

By the way, kids, the $17 million Malibu house was sold by French-born sneaker tycoon Pierre-Andre Senizergues. If you wanna know more about him or the house he no longer owns, splunk on over to Your Mama’s beauteous write-up over this way. We’re sorry to be so skimpy on the details over here, but this heat wave has got us right addled and we just can’t with anything ever.

But we’ll be back in top form very soon. You can stick that in your ol’ Splunker.

Chris Cortazzo of Coldwell Banker repped both the seller and the Swans.